


A riddle a day...

by RainyMonday



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Arguing over silly things, First Kiss, Fluff, Gotham Recs - Gift Exchange Summer 2018, Love Confessions, Love Letters, M/M, Riddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 16:29:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15513882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainyMonday/pseuds/RainyMonday
Summary: It's a normal day when the Riddler writes him the first time. Lucius has no idea what all of this is about, but he slowly falls in love with the person regularly sending him riddles. But who is it?My work for the Gotham Recs gift exchange for knightinpinkunderwear





	A riddle a day...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [knightinpinkunderwear](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightinpinkunderwear/gifts).



> Hello everbody,
> 
> this is my first attempt on Foxma, so I hope I've done it right :)  
> It's a bit late but I've been so busy...
> 
> Knightinpinkunderwear (awesome name btw) I really hope you're enjoying this. I tried to match this to as many of your wishes as possible.  
> Enjoy!

Ed had never expected somebody to share his love for riddles. But now he had found somebody.  
It felt like this person understood him. He’d always believed that by answering his riddles, people got to know him. The way he thought, the way he worked, what he wanted and what not. It had struck him, hurt him even, when nobody was able to answer three small questions, when they hadn’t understood.  
But now, now there finally was hope. He had gotten so used to being underwhelmed, to being surprised in a bad way, that this pleasant surprise made his stomach jump and his lips curl into a cheerful smile.  
He’d held high hopes in many people and had been disappointed. This time was different, this time surprise had come to him by itself, without him expecting it. He had stopped searching for this one person and now he had appeared right in front of him.

The college newspaper published a page full of riddles every month and by answering all of them, one would win (mostly useless) prices. Ed participated anyways. He found the riddles quite entertaining. There were puzzles to solve, trick questions, … Nothing to difficult. In fact, sometimes they bored him. He solved all of them anyways because it was fun. And for about a year now, he’d constantly been the only one to answer all of them correctly. For about a year, nobody on this campus had been able to solve a few ridiculous questions. Nobody until now.

He’d taken his time with the riddle page because he had to work on a biology project. He hadn’t expected competition, so when he didn’t receive the normal email with congratulations for winning this month’s (again useless) price, he was irritated at first. Then he was angry, only a little bit, because his pride was hurt. Then he bought the next issue of the newspaper – what he usually never did – and read another’s name. Lucius Fox. It made his heart stop for a second only to have it beat frantically seconds later. It felt incredibly exciting to know that there was somebody else who was able to do what he did. Somebody, who could understand him.

At first, the name meant nothing to him. He liked the sound when he said it and loved how the last name seemed to match this person’s intellect. A cunning fox. He was overly cheerful the next day. At least, until he met the owner of said special name. He wasn’t that cheerful afterwards.

It was the first period when he met Lucius Fox in person.  
Ed had wondered why they’d never met before. It was easily explained when their professor introduced Lucius Fox as student of chemistry and engineering. Of course, they’d never met. Ed always felt like people didn’t like him, that they were annoyed with him and at one point he’d simply stopped looking for friends. So he’d never really talked to somebody outside his subject. A mistake, as it appeared. Lucius Fox was gorgeous. His eyes had a livid sparkle when he talked about science and his voice was so overexcited when he discussed several possible solutions for their latest project that Ed got excited too.

Their latest project, a complete analysis of different stains and material scratches, had been assigned to them as relevant for the examination. Ed knew what to do, he’d always taken an interest in other fields of science and with a wish of becoming a forensic, he’d read a lot about chemistry and analysis. His professor however, had found it necessary to assign them some help. Said help was Lucius Fox.  
It did not go as pleasantly as he had hoped. He was not a fan of being challenged and he hated being outsmarted. Lucius Fox was smart and he knew very well. He was decent, with a soft, comforting voice and a serious face, not looking for a fight. They got into one nonetheless.

They had already analyzed most of the stains and Ed had gone through each analysis without problems. He looked at them, run some basic tests and then crossed out one variable at a time until only one possibility remained. It reminded him of solving riddles and puzzles because by following the steps, he could simply see the solution plainly before him.  
He’d payed attention with one eye to Lucius Fox, who wandered around and helped those who hadn’t taken the time to learn a thing or two about chemistry. He was fast and smart and wonderful in explaining his ways of thinking. Ed caught himself admiring the way Lucius smiled and nodded when another student found the solution and how he frowned when he was in deep thought.  
He wanted to say something but had no idea what. He wanted to burst out with something cunning and smart, wanted to impress the other. But he remained silent because some part of him was still scared that he would be annoying and weird again, that Lucius – despite having solved those riddles – would be like everybody else.

In the end, it was Lucius who came looking for him.  
“You’re really good”, he said, a smile dancing on his lips. Ed only stared and blinked before he caught himself.  
“Have you studied chemistry before?”, Lucius asked, looking over his shoulder.  
“I’ve read a couple of books”, he mumbled and tried to focus on his work again.  
The last stain was tricky and he had some troubles identifying it. He thought about using a classical analysis to differ between human and non-human RNA. It would take him some time, but in the end, he could tell how to continue.  
“It will take you forever like this”, Lucius commented behind him.  
He froze. He was not used to being corrected. Yes, he’d expected Lucius Fox to be outstanding, but not to correct him, to tell him what to do.  
“You should use a Raman spectroscopy. That’s way faster and the RNA analysis is already-“  
“I know what a Raman spectroscopy is”, Ed interrupted him. He wasn’t thinking, wasn’t considering that he wanted to be nice to Lucius. “It’s new and efficient but as you may know, it’s not as reliable as the old method!”  
“The technique has been enhanced and the relevance of the times it didn’t work is close to zero”, Lucius replied, his voice still calm but a little bit shaky.  
“You have no idea of these mistakes’ relevance”, Ed snapped, hastily preparing his method to test the stain.  
“I am a chemistry student, I work with this method every other day. I think I know way better than you how well this is working. I’m trying to help you!”, Lucius voice was not so calm anymore and Ed good see the frown on his face deepening.  
“I don’t need your help”, he said and wanted to take the words back only seconds later. He looked away because he could see the hurt on Lucius’ face. He’d ruined it again.  
“Well”, Lucius sounded strained, “then I’ll see if the others are willing to listen to some advice”  
He turned around and walked over to another table. Ed clenched is hands into fists. He was mostly angry at himself. He hadn’t been able to swallow or control his pride and now he’d ruined every attempt of saying hello and getting to meet the other. Most likely Lucius thought of him as an arrogant know-it-all now. He sighed and tried to forget, focused on his analysis only to finish last because the others had used the Raman spectroscopy and he hadn’t listened. He thought about excusing – which he rarely did – but when he was done cleaning his table, Lucius was already gone.

 

It was a normal day when Lucius opened his locker to find an envelope among his usual things. At first, he couldn’t really make sense out of it. Maybe it had fallen out of his books or he’d forgot about some post he’d received. As it was addressed to him, he was fairly sure this wasn’t a mistake. He thought about ignoring it, just in case somebody wanted to make fun of him but decided to open it. He was way too curious not to.  
Inside was nothing more than a card, a big question mark printed on one side of it. There was no way Lucius could make sense out of this, but he was still curious and turned the card around. There was no handwriting on it - of course not - but cut out letters from a newspaper. The whole way the card looked was extravagant and weird and yet he couldn’t stop himself from reading the text. He read it once, his brows furrowing, and then twice because at first, he couldn’t wrap his head around it. There was a short message at first, then a riddle. He focused on the message, simply because if he would start thinking about the riddle, everything else would be gone until he solved it. He’s addressed by name and not surprised. Whoever had done this had known where his locker was and most likely hadn’t just dropped a random card in a random locker.  
You impressed me Foxy stood there I never expected to find somebody who could. Care to impress me more?  
Lucius felt his brows rise as he read the message once and then again. He impressed somebody? He usually wasn’t really impressive, at least not to most people. He still had to smile. This was the weirdest letter he’d ever received and the strangest way of, well, making him a compliment he could imagine, but it was cute and special and he liked the idea of impressing somebody. So instead of throwing it away, he kept reading.  
What starts with “e” ends with “e” and contains one letter?  
He had to laugh when he read the riddle this time, because honestly, this was funny and cute in a way he hadn’t expected.  
Just write the answer down and leave the envelope in the library. I’ll get it.  
For some reason, Lucius had to smile. He enjoyed the idea that this wasn’t the last time he received a letter and a riddle. He circled the word envelope and drew a pretty crappy smiley next to it before he left the letter in the suggested book at the library. He thought about waiting to see who would come, but thought it would be ridiculous in case all of this turned out as a joke.

 

It took the mysterious person, Lucius decided to call him Riddler, a week to send him the next letter. He found it in his locker again. It was green this time, another question mark printed on the envelope. He refused to admit himself that he’d looked forward to another riddle and maybe to another short message. He opened the envelope eagerly and his eyes flew over the few words.  
You impressed me again. It’s nice to have somebody to talk to.  
Many have heard me, but no one has seen me, and I will not speak back until spoken to. What am I?  
A grin appeared on his lips.  
“What are you grinning at?”, Jim appeared right next to him suddenly and Lucius almost died of a heart attack.  
“A letter?”, he replied, his response more of a question than an actual answer.  
“It makes you blush”, Jim noticed, his eyebrows raising, “is it a love letter?”  
Lucius tried to roll his eyes, failed and sighed. “It’s not. Not really. It’s a riddle.”  
“A riddle?”, Jim repeated, trying to glance at the paper Lucius still had in his hands.  
“Yes. Somebody left me a card with a riddle and asked me to answer it”  
“And you obviously did. Why?”  
“He, I think it’s a him, said I impressed him. It was… nice”, Lucius turned around, successfully guarding his letter from Jim’s eyes now.  
“I understand”, a grin appeared on Jim’s lips, “and I won’t stop you from reading your newest love letter” He laughed and turned around, most likely going straight to Harvey. He was doomed.

Jim had been right thought. He felt himself blush whenever he opened another letter. He thought about what he wrote back, only short sentences and his answers. He liked talking to the Riddler, it felt like he was understood. It also was flattering.  
He found he liked this weird idea of courting, the way the riddles appeared in his locker or before his dorm room. They always made him smile. Sometimes, it took him longer to figure out, sometimes he just knew the answer. But every time he could write the correct solution down on the sheet of paper, he felt a little bit more like he knew this person. He had no idea what he looked like, what his name was, but Lucius knew how this person thought and he loved the complex, somewhat irritating way he came up with new questions. He loved the challenge, loved the idea of having someone who somehow matched him. He was sure that they had a lot of things in common.  
Nevertheless, it was annoying that said person still hadn’t come forward, telling him his name. He’d searched for clues in the messages he received and even bribed the singing grape who appeared in front of his dorm room one time. Sadly, the grape had no idea who hired him.  
Lucius was determined to meet that riddle loving person in real life and if he wasn’t getting any hints, he had to find out himself. He’d proved himself worthy of solving numerous of trick questions with almost zero hints before.

He started with the first riddle he received and asked himself why. It was his third year here and assuming his secret admirer was about the same age, one question remained: why him? How had the Riddler known he was into solving riddles and wouldn’t think that all of this was some kind of weird joke? He was sure they weren’t friends or close acquaintances; therefore, the person had met him somewhere else. He was sure Jim or Harvey would have told him if they had an idea who his admirer was. The only time he’d expressed his ability to solve complex questions and puzzles had been the one time Jim forced him to complete the college newspapers riddle page. He always found it ridiculous, but Jim had bet him to do it and he did. His name had been published in the next issue of the newspaper. So most likely that was where his admirer had gotten his name from. Now he simply had to find out who from the approximately thousand readers were secretly writing him love letters.  
Because that was undoubtably what the riddles had become. By now, most of the riddles he had to solve had answers that were somehow romantically or praising. He had had solutions like affection, promise or puzzles whose solutions turned out to be sentences complimenting him. He loved reading all of those compliments and he loved them even more when he considered the effort the Riddler had taken to make them work like this.  
In the end, Harvey and Jim ended up helping him finding the Riddler. They had partly volunteered, partly been forced by him. Now they were sitting in the library, searching for those issues of the university newspaper with the riddle pages and the winner of the last contests. He was sure by now that whoever wrote those letters had participated in the newspaper’s contests and had gotten his name from there. It took them some time to find the older issues, but when they had, it was rather easy to find the one person winning all the contests in a row.  
Lucius remembered the name Edward Nygma from somewhere but wasn’t entirely sure until they had looked him up too. They found a couple of essays good enough to make it into the library and an old yearbook. When he saw the picture, Lucius instantly remembered. The biology project, the tall young man with glasses who refused to have his help. He smiled because in hindsight, it had been obvious.

Ed nearly tripped and fell over when Lucius Fox appeared in the room he was currently working in. He caught himself (and the test tubes) and stopped in the middle of the room. He had no idea what to do now. If Lucius was here, it could only mean-  
“You could have just told me”, Lucius started, his voice calm and reassuring, “it’s not like I was really angry at you for turning me down”  
“I wasn’t so sure about that”, Ed replied, sounding a bit helpless. He put the test tubes down, only to have something to do. “I thought I’d ruined it. We’ve never met before and I acted like an idiot” He sighed.  
“You though it would be cleverer to send me anonymous letters?”, Lucius asked and Ed was relieved when he heard a tiny bit of humor.  
“It certainly was easier than telling you”, he admitted, “and it was fun. I loved writing those letters and I loved your responses. You-“  
“I surprised you when I won that riddle contest”, Lucius interrupted him, slowly coming closer, “I got curious and did some research”  
“I…”, Ed’s cheeks flushed, “I expected you to find out at some point”  
“You did?”, Lucius asked, the frown appearing back on his face. He was thinking. Ed loved that expression on him.  
“These letters appeared to be a good chance for us to meet”, he finally confessed, “I didn’t dare to go to you, so I thought at one point, if you were truly interested, you’d find me”  
“That’s clever”, Lucius grinned, “you could have still left some hints in your letters”  
“I think I wanted you to impress me again”, Ed smiled too now because talking to Lucius felt so natural. It felt familiar, like they knew each other. Probably because they did, in some way.  
“Well, here I am”, Lucius stated, “where’s my reward for impressing you?”  
“What about an invitation?”, Ed asked a little bit too fast, but Lucius still nodded.  
“I’ve waited weeks for you to say that”, Lucius replied, a soft smile playing around his lips.  
“What can’t you have for breakfast and lunch?”, Ed felt his voice trembling, his stomach curled. He studied Lucius’ face for every tiny reaction.  
“Dinner sounds perfect”, the other said and came another step closer. “What about 7 o’clock this evening?”, he continued and Ed couldn’t stop the bright smile from appearing on his face.  
He focused on Lucius and how he had answered his question, how he’d understood. This was perfect. He hesitated a moment, then pushed all his thoughts away and leaned down to press his lips against the other’s. It was a soft, careful kiss and Ed had no idea when he’d closed his eyes, he simply knew that it was great and that he wanted to do it again. And again.  
“Fine. I’ll see you there”, Lucius grinned, his eyes full of the livid sparkles Ed had seen before.  
“You can think about something until that”, Lucius added, already standing in the door frame, “I cannot be bought, but I can be stolen with one glance. I’m worthless to one but priceless to two. What am I?” He left before Ed could answer.  
Love.

**Author's Note:**

> Yup, I looked up stuff about forensics (:


End file.
